Currently, changes in the rate of soil losses on arable land depend to the greatest extent on the set of sown agricultural crops. Socio-economic changes in recent decades have influenced the range of crops cultivated in agrarian regions of Russia, which led to changes in cover-management factor (C-factor) of soil erosion. The aim of the study was to identify the changes in C-factor of crop rotations for periods of meltwater and rainfall runoff for the time windows 1996–2012 and 2014–2022 at the level of administrative regions of the Russian Federation, as well as municipalities within them. The dynamics of crop rotation was estimated according to official statistical data. It was found that the C-factor of rainfall runoff increased during 1996–2012 in most regions, but has stabilized in the Southern part of European Russia in the last 10 years. In the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia, the C-factor of rainfall runoff continues to grow at present due to the increase in the proportion of row crops in crop rotation. However, the change in C-factor did not exceed 20% in most regions for the last 30 years. A high variability of values and trends of C-factor at the level of municipalities was established. The variability of C-factor is the lowest for the regions with the dominance of chernozem soils. The growth of C-factor for period of rainfall runoff leads to soil fertility decreasing. Regions with high soil losses from arable land at the end of the 20th century (Kursk, Oryol and Tula regions, the Republics of Mordovia and Tatarstan) are currently the most vulnerable to soil erosion.
E.A. Eremenko (Wed,) studied this question.